With Bill C-54, if you are deemed to be "high risk not criminally responsible," you will be held for a minimum of three years before you ever have the chance to see a review board. As someone who has not only been a patient in three separate psychiatric hospitals in Ontario, but has also worked in forensic psychiatric institutions, I know that they aren't always the best places to get better. With proper treatment, I was healthy again and posed no threat to the public within a few months. Had I been forced to remain in hospital for three years, I likely wouldn't be the productive, law-abiding citizen that I am today.

Anytime a celebrity or somebody in the spotlight, like Mindy McCready, takes his or her own life we tend to only talk about the issues facing that specific person. Maybe its easier to talk of somebody everybody knows of. I've talked about why I was grateful I'm still living because, as I've learned, I have a lot to live for. I saw that first hand after my two suicide attempts.

Jacquie was mentally ill, this much was clear, but after age 12 her parents didn't have the ability to force her into treatment, where they knew she belonged. Sure enough, with Jacquie living on her own and untreated, she launched a horrific attack with a saw on two neighbours, a mother and a daughter, who nearly died. Jacquie was found criminally not responsible for the attacks. The two doctors who refused to deal with and treat a severely ill young lady remain in place today. They are hidden deep in a broken medical system that protects them, but also sucks them in as a new kind of unintended victim of a sick health care bureaucracy.

Would you ever hesitate to tell your boss the reason that you have a runny nose is because you have the flu? The obvious answer to that question is, no. Then why do we hesitate to talk to our employer about mental illness? My dream is that anybody living with mental illness can have the same dialogue with their employers that I currently enjoy.

Even though people suffer from a disease of the brain that impairs their rational thinking, most jurisdictions in North America have stringent legislation that makes it difficult to impose treatment. And, because society allows them to refuse treatment, some die. But, their civil liberties remain intact. Or do they?

Lack of services for the mentally ill is becoming an issue for the upcoming election in Ontario. Many are not impressed with what this government has...